Conflict in Gaza

The Conflict between Palestine and Israel
Over the past week, there have been many heated discussions, demonstrations and news reports about a conflict that has affected the Middle East for years. This conflict between two nations has brought up many different issues such as Religion, Occupation, and Politics. As with any conflict, with it arise different voices heard and opinions made. Here is my opinion about what is happening in Gaza today.

On December 26, 2008, a ceasefire was broken between two nations, Palestine and Israel. While both sides have their own stories to tell, one side gets heard over the other. In my opinion, the government in Gaza, Hamas, was the victim, not the aggressor.

We would like to believe that both Palestine and Israel are free nations as we do not hear about anything in the news until fighting starts, but sadly, this is not the case. Palestine is occupied by Israel. Israel split Palestine into two parts, the West Bank, and Gaza. Both sides heavily feel the effects of the occupation while families are starving, dehydrated, and with not enough medicine to treat the sick and heal the injured.

While on the 18 of June 2008 a ceasefire between Palestine and Israel was in effect, the conditions for the Palestinians did not improve, especially in the Gaza strip. Parents felt lucky if their children were alive just for one night, because they never knew if they would be alive the next night or not, the living conditions in Gaza were horrible and very space limited as a house had at least twenty-five civilians living in it. Many were unable to provide for their families with the limited supplies of water and food they had. Hamas started firing home made rockets on Israel in self defence, they were not going to stand by and watch Gazans slowly die one by one.

With those rockets, within the first five days, Palestinians had killed 4 Israel civilians in comparison to the nearly 400 the Israelis killed! As the days went by, the number of casualties increased. Israel denied independent international reporters from covering news inside of Gaza, therefore, all allegations of Hamas using the civilian population as human shields were not independently verified. Across the world, there have been efforts in an attempt to reach another ceasefire. Civilian homes were being attacked by artillery; Mosques were hit in the middle of prayers. There is no place for Gazans to hide, to seek refuge. Just a few days ago a UN School that was used as a shelter was targeted. The UN denied Israeli allegations of the school holding militants.

Protests and demonstrations are held to draw people’s attention to the issue. Hamas home made rockets cannot stand in front of Israeli air force, navy, artillery and infantry.